a response by Jack Roberts
to a comment posted dec. 5th, 2008
Your questions are important and indicate an inquisitive, thoughtful mind; they also touch on the core issue framed by Pilate to Jesus, “What is truth?” In order to address your questions, we need to back up a little and notice a word you used several times: the word ‘know.’ If you mean by the word an absolute, 100% certainty beyond even the possibility of error, then no one can ‘know.’ This is simply because we can’t be everywhere at once and have no way of getting outside of our bodies and minds to verify that what we ‘know’ actually corresponds with what ‘is.’ This means that everyone must have a starting point from which he begins to think, reason, evaluate. That starting point cannot be ‘proven’ with 100% certainty. For example, Des Cartes’ famous dictum, “I think, therefore I am,” assumes there is an “I” to do the thinking. But that is what the ‘thinking’ was supposed to prove. His statement should be more accurately stated thus: Thinking, therefore Thinking. In other words, the experience of thinking does not prove there is an “I” doing it; it may be there is a spirit being that is dreaming or thinking and there is no independent “I” at all.
If I say that logic is my starting point, I run immediately into a problem. I must assume the law of non-contradiction in order to reason, think or even communicate: that ‘A is not non-A’ cannot be ‘proven.’ What logic or ‘proof’ could be offered for its validation that does not assume that words or symbols cannot also simultaneously mean their contradiction? For example, if I say “A is an apple. A is not an apple.” If the terms in the two statements retain the identical meanings at the same instant, how do I ‘know’ that they are not both true? If they can both be true, then communication becomes impossible since my words can also mean their opposite. I cannot appeal to the ‘law of non-contradiction’ because that is what I am trying to ‘prove.’ I must assume that law in order to use logic and to have my words have meaning.
Hence, everyone operates under the rubric of some assumption. The scientific method uses this in order to come to conclusions in experimentation: make an assumption (hypothesis) about some phenomenon, evaluate if the consequences of that assumption correspond to observable, known data. If the conclusions match the expected results, the assumption is ‘proved.’ This is the way we daily live our lives: we do not have ‘absolute proof’ that the labels on cans are accurate but we make buying decisions based on what we read there. This is true at restaurants, medical appointments, lab results, pharmacies and medications – in fact, everywhere. We all live by faith every moment: we believe the car will stop when we brake; we believe that stove will not explode when we turn it on; we believe that the woman we call our mother really is our mother even though there cannot be 100% proof (as Augustine observed 1700 years ago).
Given that an assumption is necessary to live, there are only three possible: 1) this is all a dream, an illusion in the mind of the universal spirit (the religious pantheisms of the East); 2) there is only matter, simply the unfolding of the Big Bang following laws which we do not yet understand (the philosophic materialism of the West); 3) the Tri-Une God revealed in the Bible. Having stated that, the debate is which gives the best explanation for things as we experience them. Let’s take them one at a time.
If all this (the universe of our experience) is an illusion, life is utterly meaningless and it is useless to continue the discussion. In fact, nothing matters at all because it is not actually happening. This view is untenable because it is unlivable: no one can live as if everything is an illusion; as least, no one can live that way very long. I must act as if the truck is real or it will run me over; I must act as if there is a difference between good and evil, truth and error, life and death or my illusionary existence will end, probably quickly and tragically. So although it is theoretically possible that this all is an illusion and no one can prove it is not, no one really believes it is. It is an inadequate starting point.
The second possible assumption, nothing but matter (or stuff in various formulations) exists or ever has or will exist, undergirds the philosophical and scientific belief systems of the educational/social/cultural leaders of the West. Extrapolating backwards from the observations and mathematical formulae of the past several hundreds of years, the best conclusion is that sometime about 13 billion years ago (a few years ago it was 15 billion) everything that is began with The Big Bang. Since there is nothing outside of what can be construed to be part of the space-time continuum, all that is comes as a result of forces perhaps mostly only crudely understood as yet. However, the faith-commitment is that could we know everything at work, all phenomena is simply (though marvelously complex) a part of the machinery of the Cosmos. That means, in practical terms, if we could enter all the data that is into a computer large enough in a single microsecond, all that ever has been, is, or will be could be known. In other words, all ‘decisions,’ feelings and actions of every human being are not ‘free;’ everything and everyone is a robot, an action figure in the computer game of the Universe.
Again, as with the first possible assumption, this is theoretically possible but unlivable. Everything that is important to human beings - relationships, creativity, moral responsibility, achievement, honor, decisions – lose all meaning if they are simply the result of the evolution of “only stuff” from the cataclysmic event of the Big Bang. In fact, no one lives this way, nor can they. Even the ones who developed the naturalistic rationale for all of life want to get credit for their ingenuity. Everyone wants to believe that people choose to love them/be with them because they choose to, not because they are so programmed. No government can function, no human significance can be maintained without living as if people are not programmed but individuals responsible for their behavior. This deterministic view of reality is fatalistic and concludes in hopeless cynicism. It is an inadequate starting point.
The third possible assumption, starting with the existence of the God revealed in the writings of the Old and New Testaments, is the only one that is both internally consistent and corresponds to reality as we experience it. It is important to note that this is not simply a ‘religious’ answer: if the Tri-Une God of Scripture did not exist, hard-core, radical atheism or total, suicidal despair would be the only ‘reasonable’ alternatives. There can be no god but the God of the Bible; all other posited deities are insufficient. For example, the god of Islam, Allah, is a single individual – “There is no god but Allah” - he is all-mighty, all-powerful, all-sufficient in himself. However, there had to be a time when he was alone (or whatever it was, is co-equal to Allah, at least in his timelessness). What was Allah before he created anything else? In our experience of reality, for love or power to have meaning it must be in relationship to something “other.” For Allah, he must have needed to create in order to have an “other” to love or to whom/which he could display his power. Without that, there was no ‘worship,’ no ‘glory’ no ‘love’ as we use the terms; he had to make something to be the sovereign over. No purely monotheistic construction of a deity can resolve this fatal flaw; such religious alternatives to the secular position are nothing more than the clever inventions of the mind of man. Lenin was right: “religion is the opium of the people,”…If that is the best there is.
Enter “In the beginning God.” Immediately in the ancient Hebrew text we are confronted with the hint of something different in the nature of God: plurality in singularity, singularity in plurality. As the Scriptures unfold YHWH’s self-revelation, we are teased with visions of a Creator who is beyond all human conception: the I AM and I AM WHO I AM to Moses, the Shepherd to David, the First and the Last to Isaiah. Here is a starting point which is simultaneously infinite and personal, one and yet three. Given that the Three Persons who are-is God are outside of space and time, they-he are the definition and initiators of all that is (except evil, which must be addressed later). The Scriptures state that “God is love” (I John 4:8), meaning that he is the source of all love and his very nature is love. This makes sense in the relationship of the Tri-Une God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: three equally infinite persons delighting in one another timelessly without ever being bored because of their equally infinite creativity. In other words, love is the word given to name the relationship between the Three-in-One; to understand love, we must understand something of that God. It also means that instead of a cold, empty universe or a meaningless illusion, the ultimate background of human existence is the breathtakingly exuberant love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (e.g., John 17:22-26). Humanity can then be seen as God’s “love-child,” the expression of that eternal love relationship, where creating man in his image was not necessary to have an object of love, but the overflow of the Infinite(s) delight in one another.
Thus, Adam and Eve, each made in the ‘image of God,’ reflect something of each member of the Tri-Unity and together the unity and diversity of YHWH, so that the union of the two becoming one flesh makes a visible statement about the invisible Infinite. Heterosexual marriage, then, is unique in its ability to mirror in a tiny way the mystery of the Tri-Unity of God.
The problem of evil, again, can only be seriously addressed by the God of Scripture.
In the assumption of illusion, real evil does not exist; it is only a temporary misperception of the ultimate nothingness of the all. For the consistent materialist, evil is simply a handle given to particulars that are objectionable to the ill-informed. Things are not ‘good’ or ‘evil;’ they just are. There is no actual evil; it is all part of the Cosmic Reality and all moral judgments are programmed into space and time by space and time.
In stark contrast to this non-moral world-view, the Scriptures proclaim a God who is good and defines good for humanity. In fact, he has not only written it in a series of books/letters (called The Book) but on human hearts. The reason why the Ten Commandments (at least five through ten) are observable in rudimentary form in virtually all cultures is because “the law is written on their hearts” (Romans 2:15). Since God is good, why is there evil and where did it come from? Although the story of the origin of evil is not definitively recorded, we are told that Satan is the evil one, the father of lies, the deceiver. As a person-spirit (angel) created by God he was good also, but there is the hint of an explanation for the creation of evil by this one in Isaiah 14. If that is a record of an event before the creation of the world, evil is the creation of this spirit-being; he is the only one besides YHWH who created out of nothing. There was no evil, no temptation; he brought it into existence. Because God is sovereign and nothing happens apart from his will, he could have prevented or undone the creation of evil. However, since this angel was also a ‘person,’ and thus also reflected something of God’s personal nature, to disregard his creative act or destroy him, would be to dishonor his own image. Since God has always known everything and can do whatever he wants, it is impossible for the human mind to construct a logical sequence of events that would explain how he could simultaneously be sovereign and not be responsible for the existence of evil. Yet, that is the unequivocal position of Scripture.
How can this be? If God is good and evil exists, either God is also evil or he is too weak to prevent it. The self-revelation of YHWH, the I AM WHO I AM, must always be the backdrop of our understanding. There are two perspectives, represented in the Old Testament by Deuteronomy 29:29 and in the New Testament by Romans 9:19-20a.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are
revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the
words of this law.”
“You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can
resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?’”
The OT viewpoint is that there are things that cannot be revealed to man because they are rooted in the nature of the Tri-Unity of God and are inaccessible to the human mind. If a brilliant genius could explain God, then a brilliant genius could have invented God. The inexplicability of the Triune God makes acceptable the apparently contradictory truths of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of angels and man. Like parallel lines, they meet only in infinity: the Tri-Une, infinite-personal God of the Biblical record is the infinite reference point. This means that it is not surprising that when the infinite (God) intersects with the finite (man), he cannot be understood. It also means, and gloriously so, that eternity will not exhaust our knowledge of God: there will always be more!
Paul the Apostle in the NT brings the other necessary consideration which makes the ‘mysteries’ palatable: man is the creature; he did not create God. As creatures, we did not invent the rules, define the meanings or determine the outcome. The Creator has the right to do whatever he wants and whatever he wants is good by definition: his definition. This is remarkably consistent with the revealed nature of God. Imitations of the real God who are human constructs may be more amenable to the creature’s sense of justice, goodness and truth, but they are little more than ‘man writ large.’ As such they are insufficient to explain things as they are and impotent to give lasting hope. The revelation of the only true God goes against the grain of humanism’s founding principle: humanity, the apex, center and hope of reality. This sovereign, uncompromisingly holy, inscrutable Tri-Une God would not be the invention of any man; something/someone more manageable and reasonable would be more attractive.
This counter-intuitive revelation even explains why other ‘gods’ are so popular: by nature and by choice man does not want the true God. The created evil has entered the ‘good earth’ by means of disobedience by the first parents and now that corrupt mindset pervades everything. Sin is a rejection of the Tri-Une God and his rule over us; it is inbred in us to be repulsed by this God and prefer virtually anything else. The Scriptures state that in our inner/unseen self we have a committed hatred of God; that we do not see that or exhibit that fully is God’s mercy to us. Because of our inescapable self-deception, to see it fully requires the uninhibited light of God’s holiness; but that holiness would completely shatter us, wither us into utter judgment. If the corruption of our hearts were to be fully manifested, human life would be ‘hell on earth’ and no flesh could survive long. Such is the pronounced verdict of God: “The heart is deceitful above all things and (desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9)
This brings us to the focal point of human history and God’s intervention into it: YHWH became man. The Eternal Spirit becomes flesh and blood; the Creator becomes the creature. This was not simply to model a better way of life (like Buddha), or deliver a set of requirements demanding submission (like Mohammed): Jesus came to give his life a ransom for many. He came to die a death that would absorb the full and everlasting wrathful judgment of the Holy God. To qualify for that he had to be God and yet man. If he were not a man, his life could not substitute for a man just as a sheep was an inadequate substitute. If he were not God, he could die for only one other life and then his life would have to forever experience the judgment of God. Because he was fully man, he could substitute for man; because he was God, he could substitute for many people. His death as the Lamb of God accomplished what no one else could do: the Infinite One experiencing an eternity of hell in a moment of human time, was equivalent to many (finite) individuals experiencing God’s wrath for an eternity. When Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), he was separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit for an instant of human time. In other words, he experienced hell, which is being cut off from God and everything good that comes from him. That this was complete suffering to substitute for sinners is proven by his next statements from the cross: “It is finished” and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” The payment was made; nothing more to be done.
Again, this goes against our natural inclination to do something to make ourselves acceptable to God, something to redeem ourselves and make up for foolish or wicked acts. In this revelation from the Creator, he makes it clear that the only contribution corrupt humanity can make to God’s work of salvation is to nail the Son of God to the cross. There is no room for pride, or sense of accomplishment or self-cleansing; God did it all. There is nothing to do but to bow before this awesome, loving, holy, sovereign God and receive the gift of forgiveness from him.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Where We Are and Where We Need to Go, Part 1
Today America rejoiced. The celebration of my countrymen permeated every avenue of communication with a frigid reality. On this day, January 20, 2009, the man who received a resounding endorsement from Hamas, who was named “the most liberal Senator of 2007” by the National Journal, and who promised to make his first act as President the passing of a radical bill that would wipe out state abortion restrictions (Freedom of Choice Act), was worshiped as he was sworn in as the forty-forth President of these United States. Yes, America celebrated, literally weeping in her ecstasy. I too wept. However, grief ushered forth my tears, not the opium of false hope. I wept and clawed at the anxiety searing my soul.
He is elected; it is done. It cannot be changed. We should be praying for our new president, as we should all our leaders, but this does not mean we turn a blind eye to his priorities and principles. The election of Obama says a lot about this country. It is now clear we live in a country whose people care more about “making history” than about doing what is good and right to build a stronger nation. We live in a country where the color of a man’s skin elevated him into the most powerful position in the world. We live in a country where the black evangelical church used worship services to praise God for their new idol, abandoned Scripture, and failed to embrace the conviction of their own martyr (MLK) that a man should be judged by content and character, not color. We live in a country where God’s people sit at home mourning the direction of this world, yet fail to stand up and fight. We live in a country where laws forbidding cruelty to animals are abundant, while laws forbidding cruelty to unborn babies are constantly opposed. We live in a country where almost 2 million people will brave harsh elements to “make history,” while only 125,000 will show up to fight for life. We live in a country where people mock the outgoing President as he exits with words of praise for his successor, even though he kept them safe for seven years. We live in a country where we claim the color of a man should not be an issue, yet heap effusive praise on a man whose color is at the very heart of the issue. We live in a country where tax breaks are more important to its citizens than the sacredness of human life. We live in a country that condemns voting on a single issue, but that votes the single issue of the economy. We live in a country where more stock is put in financial security than the security for those in a womb. We live in a country where the Church says the government has failed the poor, when it is really the Church’s responsibility and the Church who has failed. We live in an immoral, postmodern country. What are we going to do about it?
Until this point the Christian lawyers, theologians, educators, and the evangelical establishment as a whole have not “been in there blowing the trumpet loud and clear.” On January 22, the March for Life is one tremendous way to help blow the trumpet.
Just think: Today as America raised her voice in celebration there were 4,000 new voices joining the already 50,000,000 silenced voices in the grave.
He is elected; it is done. It cannot be changed. We should be praying for our new president, as we should all our leaders, but this does not mean we turn a blind eye to his priorities and principles. The election of Obama says a lot about this country. It is now clear we live in a country whose people care more about “making history” than about doing what is good and right to build a stronger nation. We live in a country where the color of a man’s skin elevated him into the most powerful position in the world. We live in a country where the black evangelical church used worship services to praise God for their new idol, abandoned Scripture, and failed to embrace the conviction of their own martyr (MLK) that a man should be judged by content and character, not color. We live in a country where God’s people sit at home mourning the direction of this world, yet fail to stand up and fight. We live in a country where laws forbidding cruelty to animals are abundant, while laws forbidding cruelty to unborn babies are constantly opposed. We live in a country where almost 2 million people will brave harsh elements to “make history,” while only 125,000 will show up to fight for life. We live in a country where people mock the outgoing President as he exits with words of praise for his successor, even though he kept them safe for seven years. We live in a country where we claim the color of a man should not be an issue, yet heap effusive praise on a man whose color is at the very heart of the issue. We live in a country where tax breaks are more important to its citizens than the sacredness of human life. We live in a country that condemns voting on a single issue, but that votes the single issue of the economy. We live in a country where more stock is put in financial security than the security for those in a womb. We live in a country where the Church says the government has failed the poor, when it is really the Church’s responsibility and the Church who has failed. We live in an immoral, postmodern country. What are we going to do about it?
Until this point the Christian lawyers, theologians, educators, and the evangelical establishment as a whole have not “been in there blowing the trumpet loud and clear.” On January 22, the March for Life is one tremendous way to help blow the trumpet.
Just think: Today as America raised her voice in celebration there were 4,000 new voices joining the already 50,000,000 silenced voices in the grave.
Monday, January 19, 2009
In the Words of Schaeffer
The following is an excerpt from A Christian Manifesto, which should be on the top of everyone’s reading list.
We must understand that the question of the dignity of human life is not something on the periphery of Judeo-Christian thinking, but almost in the center of it (though not the center because the center is the existence of God Himself). But the dignity of human life is unbreakably linked to the existence of the personal-infinite God. It is because there is a personal-infinite God who has made men and women in His own image that they have a unique dignity of life as human beings. Human life then is filled with dignity, and the state and humanistically oriented law have no right an no authority to take human life arbitrarily in the way that it is being taken.
We must see then that indeed the cry has not been given. We must see that here, on such a central issue as abortion, the true nature of the problem [is] not understood: Christians fail to see that abortion [is] really a symptom of the much larger problem and not just one bit and piece. And beyond this as the material-energy-chance humanistic world view takes over increasingly in our country, the view concerning the intrinsic value of human life will grow less and less, and the concept of compassion for which the country is in some sense known will be further gone.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Pittsburgh International Airport -- gate B37.
What has happened to people?
The waiting area is all but empty. A mother (middle-aged) and her skinny teenage son (with appropriately baggy clothes) sit near the desk. A grubby-looking college student occupies a corner, laptop open. Late-twenties red-head (business woman?) on far side. I come, do the calculations, and sit far enough away from everyone to eliminate all potential for conversation, even in the case of accidental eye-contact. The next six people do the same. Nearly everyone on a cell phone, or eating, or texting.
Real people are scary inconveniences . . . we already know too many.
"I don't have time or energy for you, unless you can prove you have something to offer.
Are you funny? Sexy? Friendly? Impressive? Will you make a good story?"
Has it always been this way? 'Cause I imagine the old days, a station wagon waiting platform-place, gap-toothed, plaid, bearded men exchanging hardy handshakes and "nice-to-meet-yous".
Am I too cool to be excited to meet you, stranger? What can you do to harm me? Any injury to my pride would be a help.
Do any of you think of me? What half-formed ideas about the somber kid with his legs crossed, writing, momentarily distract your brain from its dominant preoccupation?
What are your stories? I'd love to care about you...know that I'm trying--and if that counts for anything, I do care in that small way.
As a child of God, I ought to bring joy to this place. Forgive me stranger--I'm not yet what I should be. I have no real cause to be uneasy, in the grand scheme of things...and certainly I'm of no account, so I don't know why I'm so prone to self-induced social paralysis.
But in another way, there is legitimate cause--the air is thick with fear and sin, the wrecks of mediocrity or malice...hatred sits there, to my left deception. Across against the wall is laziness. But are they happy--generally--or sad?
Are you empty? Or is your void filled with bubbles that make your walls feel like its full?
I do know the Truth. Will you listen if I tell you?
The waiting area is all but empty. A mother (middle-aged) and her skinny teenage son (with appropriately baggy clothes) sit near the desk. A grubby-looking college student occupies a corner, laptop open. Late-twenties red-head (business woman?) on far side. I come, do the calculations, and sit far enough away from everyone to eliminate all potential for conversation, even in the case of accidental eye-contact. The next six people do the same. Nearly everyone on a cell phone, or eating, or texting.
Real people are scary inconveniences . . . we already know too many.
"I don't have time or energy for you, unless you can prove you have something to offer.
Are you funny? Sexy? Friendly? Impressive? Will you make a good story?"
Has it always been this way? 'Cause I imagine the old days, a station wagon waiting platform-place, gap-toothed, plaid, bearded men exchanging hardy handshakes and "nice-to-meet-yous".
Am I too cool to be excited to meet you, stranger? What can you do to harm me? Any injury to my pride would be a help.
Do any of you think of me? What half-formed ideas about the somber kid with his legs crossed, writing, momentarily distract your brain from its dominant preoccupation?
What are your stories? I'd love to care about you...know that I'm trying--and if that counts for anything, I do care in that small way.
As a child of God, I ought to bring joy to this place. Forgive me stranger--I'm not yet what I should be. I have no real cause to be uneasy, in the grand scheme of things...and certainly I'm of no account, so I don't know why I'm so prone to self-induced social paralysis.
But in another way, there is legitimate cause--the air is thick with fear and sin, the wrecks of mediocrity or malice...hatred sits there, to my left deception. Across against the wall is laziness. But are they happy--generally--or sad?
Are you empty? Or is your void filled with bubbles that make your walls feel like its full?
I do know the Truth. Will you listen if I tell you?
Monday, November 24, 2008
How I Feel About My Lack of Feeling
Brazen. Do you feel you ought to be angry?
Seared beyond disturbance--are you confused?
" 'Trials' are for hypocrites. Life longs to be explained
In terms more universal and less problematic--"
Because--I don't know about you--but
Regardless of possibility, I want to be upset
By pain.
When my own pain subsides,
My nerves take a break.
In the intellectual corners of experience
I rage against injustice -- but the heat
Is trapped there. My fire-pit
Is cold with other emotions
More suited to personal comfort.
"It's unfair! It's unfair!"
Dies down and settles into smug
Self-content in perceiving the convenient Wrong of the world;
It means we're not to blame.
Seared beyond disturbance--are you confused?
" 'Trials' are for hypocrites. Life longs to be explained
In terms more universal and less problematic--"
Because--I don't know about you--but
Regardless of possibility, I want to be upset
By pain.
When my own pain subsides,
My nerves take a break.
In the intellectual corners of experience
I rage against injustice -- but the heat
Is trapped there. My fire-pit
Is cold with other emotions
More suited to personal comfort.
"It's unfair! It's unfair!"
Dies down and settles into smug
Self-content in perceiving the convenient Wrong of the world;
It means we're not to blame.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wholesale on Life
To my peers, friends, brothers and sisters:
On November 4th, just four days from this time, we will all hopefully cast our vote for the next President. This is unarguably a historic election, and would go as far as to say the gravity of this election makes it the most serious since our grandparents generation. It has become clear that the youth of America, the young voters, will essentially decided who will this country for at least the next four years. We have a heavy load upon us. The Christian youth should especially feel this burden. For months now we have heard what the candidates have to say; their policies have been laid before us and we have had a good amount of time to procure glimpses of their character and to examine the positions they stand for and why. As we mull over all the information we have acquired and determine what hole to punch, I pray that there is one issue on the forefront of all our minds and hearts – the issue of life.
Are we, self-proclaiming disciples of Christ, concerned with the moral eternal issues that will not go away? Apparently the evidence proclaims we are not. It is nauseating. Please, please, please read what I humbly, yet unapologetically, have to say.
On August 17, presidential hopeful Barrack Obama told America what he considered to be this nation’s greatest sin. He stated that the lack of caring for the weak and oppressed has been America’s most significant shortcoming. According to Obama “America’s greatest moral failure is that [this country]…does not spend enough time thinking about ‘the least of these.’” This sounds wonderful. In fact he was applauded by the Saddleback audience when Obama used this quote from Matthew 25. You know, I think Obama is right. I do not know if would say this is America’s “greatest moral failure,” but it is up there. However, the problem come in Obama’s definition of “least of these.” Apparently Obama’s grouping of the weak and oppressed does not include within in it the largest persecuted demographic in history: the unborn child.
Theodore Roosevelt, a great man and great President, once said:
“The most dangerous form of sentimental debauch is to giveexpression to good wishes on behalf of virtue while you do nothingabout it. Justice is not merely words. It is to be translated intoliving acts.”
Obama speaks of virtue, speaks of relieving the persecuted, caring for “the least of these.” Yet this same man blatantly and unrepentantly pro-abortion. He is not simply pro-abortion, he is a man who wants to make it legal to kill babies who survive failed abortions. Did you read that? Babies who survive. The facts are overwhelming. Obama wants to keep the killing of unborn children legal. But he does not stop there, he wants to expand abortion.
Right now there is a bill before Congress called the Freedom of Choice Act. This bill will do away with all limitations on abortion (look it up, read it). It is a bill that is meant to expand the practice of abortion. Do you know what Obama said concerning this bill? This is what Obama said just a year ago:
“The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d
do.”
Those are his words. If you think this is not an important issue you better realize that it is important to Obama. Protecting the legalization of killing defenseless humans is so important to Obama that his first act of president will remove the little protection unborn children have. His first act will not be to lower taxes, end the war, find Bin Laden, push for clean energy, or even help resolve what he considers America’s greatest failure: the care for the unprivileged. No, on the top of Obama’s list is to make sure it is possible to legally kill a child. Can you believe a man like this had the audacity to quote Christ the Messiah; The One.
Francis Schaeffer, an amazing man, who I honestly believe was what we would call a prophet, wrote thirty years ago:
“In our day, quite rightly, there has been a hue and cry againstSome of our ancestors’ cruel viewing of the black slaves as a non-person. This was horrible indeed – an act of hypocrisy as well as cruelty. But now, by an arbitrary absolute brought in on the humanist flow, millions of unborn babies of every color of skins [and gender] are equally by law declared non-persons. Surely this, too, must be seen as an act of hypocrisy.”
For too long Christians have stood by as Postmodernism has taken over every area of life from government to the arts. Not only have we been idle, but those who have been active (the liberal church) have adopted the postmodern doctrine and no longer hold on to the Truth as the one and only standard and absolute. God will judge those who have watered down and manipulated His word in order to go with the flow and not step on any toes. Those who have separated the material life they lead from the spiritual life they claim are fooling themselves.
Roosevelt once said in reference to abortion:
“Never will I sit motionless while directly or indirectlyapology is made for the murder of the helpless.”
We are not only standing by, we are actively promoting the slaughtering of approximately 4,000 humans in the United States daily, close to 1.5 million yearly, by promoting Obama. A well known supporter of Obama, Oprah Winfrey, was talking on her show one day about the horrors of slavery and how wonderful it must have been for the freed slave to finally wake up and make decisions for himself. Has she ever thought of how the pro-abortion stance she and Obama share makes it impossible for millions of babies to ever make a decision? Those babies are not even given the option of waking up.
In the movie Swing Kids, which is set during the beginning of World War Two, there is a quote that I believe is appropriate to share with the self-proclaiming Christian youth of today:
“We must all take responsibility for what is happeningto our country. If those of us who have a voice do notraise it in outrage at the treatment of our fellow human beings we will have collaborated in their doom. It is notgood enough to raise these voices in our homes…”
The unborn child is as much my “fellow human being” as is the Jew. We all have voices, and we can all raise them this election. Raise your voice in outcry! Why are we sitting by nodding our heads in agreement as Obama talks of green energy while brushing under the rug statements like “the first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice act”! I know our nation, our world, has forgotten that there is such a thing as moral absolutes; a Truth above all else. But have we forgotten that as well? Have we accepted the death of helpless children as the way things are? Polls this year have shown that issues such as abortion and homosexual marriage are not even in the top five issues young voters are concerned with. What is more important than the moral law God has given us?! What issue or policy is more important than a precious life made in his image? Apparently the young American voter considers issues such as taxes and energy more important than protecting the lives’ of millions of weak, oppressed, persecuted babies. It is definitely not a priority of Obama’s.
Christians should be weeping over this wholesale on life. We should be praying for God’s forgiveness. And may God judge the churches that have abandoned the Truth, putting man at the center. This election is serious. If you have looked past Obama’s Marxist doctrine, please do not also look past his total disregard for the life of the unborn.
God have mercy on us.
The foes of our own household are our worst enemies; andwe can oppose them, not only by exposing them and denouncingthem, but by constructive work in planning and building reformswhich shall take into account both the economic and the moralfactors in human advance. We in America can attain our greatdestiny only by service; not by rhetoric, and that dreadful mentaldouble-dealing and verbal juggling which makes promises and repudiates them, and says one thing at one time, and the directly opposite thing at another time. Our service must be the service of deeds. – Theodore Roosevelt
On November 4th, just four days from this time, we will all hopefully cast our vote for the next President. This is unarguably a historic election, and would go as far as to say the gravity of this election makes it the most serious since our grandparents generation. It has become clear that the youth of America, the young voters, will essentially decided who will this country for at least the next four years. We have a heavy load upon us. The Christian youth should especially feel this burden. For months now we have heard what the candidates have to say; their policies have been laid before us and we have had a good amount of time to procure glimpses of their character and to examine the positions they stand for and why. As we mull over all the information we have acquired and determine what hole to punch, I pray that there is one issue on the forefront of all our minds and hearts – the issue of life.
Are we, self-proclaiming disciples of Christ, concerned with the moral eternal issues that will not go away? Apparently the evidence proclaims we are not. It is nauseating. Please, please, please read what I humbly, yet unapologetically, have to say.
On August 17, presidential hopeful Barrack Obama told America what he considered to be this nation’s greatest sin. He stated that the lack of caring for the weak and oppressed has been America’s most significant shortcoming. According to Obama “America’s greatest moral failure is that [this country]…does not spend enough time thinking about ‘the least of these.’” This sounds wonderful. In fact he was applauded by the Saddleback audience when Obama used this quote from Matthew 25. You know, I think Obama is right. I do not know if would say this is America’s “greatest moral failure,” but it is up there. However, the problem come in Obama’s definition of “least of these.” Apparently Obama’s grouping of the weak and oppressed does not include within in it the largest persecuted demographic in history: the unborn child.
Theodore Roosevelt, a great man and great President, once said:
“The most dangerous form of sentimental debauch is to giveexpression to good wishes on behalf of virtue while you do nothingabout it. Justice is not merely words. It is to be translated intoliving acts.”
Obama speaks of virtue, speaks of relieving the persecuted, caring for “the least of these.” Yet this same man blatantly and unrepentantly pro-abortion. He is not simply pro-abortion, he is a man who wants to make it legal to kill babies who survive failed abortions. Did you read that? Babies who survive. The facts are overwhelming. Obama wants to keep the killing of unborn children legal. But he does not stop there, he wants to expand abortion.
Right now there is a bill before Congress called the Freedom of Choice Act. This bill will do away with all limitations on abortion (look it up, read it). It is a bill that is meant to expand the practice of abortion. Do you know what Obama said concerning this bill? This is what Obama said just a year ago:
“The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d
do.”
Those are his words. If you think this is not an important issue you better realize that it is important to Obama. Protecting the legalization of killing defenseless humans is so important to Obama that his first act of president will remove the little protection unborn children have. His first act will not be to lower taxes, end the war, find Bin Laden, push for clean energy, or even help resolve what he considers America’s greatest failure: the care for the unprivileged. No, on the top of Obama’s list is to make sure it is possible to legally kill a child. Can you believe a man like this had the audacity to quote Christ the Messiah; The One.
Francis Schaeffer, an amazing man, who I honestly believe was what we would call a prophet, wrote thirty years ago:
“In our day, quite rightly, there has been a hue and cry againstSome of our ancestors’ cruel viewing of the black slaves as a non-person. This was horrible indeed – an act of hypocrisy as well as cruelty. But now, by an arbitrary absolute brought in on the humanist flow, millions of unborn babies of every color of skins [and gender] are equally by law declared non-persons. Surely this, too, must be seen as an act of hypocrisy.”
For too long Christians have stood by as Postmodernism has taken over every area of life from government to the arts. Not only have we been idle, but those who have been active (the liberal church) have adopted the postmodern doctrine and no longer hold on to the Truth as the one and only standard and absolute. God will judge those who have watered down and manipulated His word in order to go with the flow and not step on any toes. Those who have separated the material life they lead from the spiritual life they claim are fooling themselves.
Roosevelt once said in reference to abortion:
“Never will I sit motionless while directly or indirectlyapology is made for the murder of the helpless.”
We are not only standing by, we are actively promoting the slaughtering of approximately 4,000 humans in the United States daily, close to 1.5 million yearly, by promoting Obama. A well known supporter of Obama, Oprah Winfrey, was talking on her show one day about the horrors of slavery and how wonderful it must have been for the freed slave to finally wake up and make decisions for himself. Has she ever thought of how the pro-abortion stance she and Obama share makes it impossible for millions of babies to ever make a decision? Those babies are not even given the option of waking up.
In the movie Swing Kids, which is set during the beginning of World War Two, there is a quote that I believe is appropriate to share with the self-proclaiming Christian youth of today:
“We must all take responsibility for what is happeningto our country. If those of us who have a voice do notraise it in outrage at the treatment of our fellow human beings we will have collaborated in their doom. It is notgood enough to raise these voices in our homes…”
The unborn child is as much my “fellow human being” as is the Jew. We all have voices, and we can all raise them this election. Raise your voice in outcry! Why are we sitting by nodding our heads in agreement as Obama talks of green energy while brushing under the rug statements like “the first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice act”! I know our nation, our world, has forgotten that there is such a thing as moral absolutes; a Truth above all else. But have we forgotten that as well? Have we accepted the death of helpless children as the way things are? Polls this year have shown that issues such as abortion and homosexual marriage are not even in the top five issues young voters are concerned with. What is more important than the moral law God has given us?! What issue or policy is more important than a precious life made in his image? Apparently the young American voter considers issues such as taxes and energy more important than protecting the lives’ of millions of weak, oppressed, persecuted babies. It is definitely not a priority of Obama’s.
Christians should be weeping over this wholesale on life. We should be praying for God’s forgiveness. And may God judge the churches that have abandoned the Truth, putting man at the center. This election is serious. If you have looked past Obama’s Marxist doctrine, please do not also look past his total disregard for the life of the unborn.
God have mercy on us.
The foes of our own household are our worst enemies; andwe can oppose them, not only by exposing them and denouncingthem, but by constructive work in planning and building reformswhich shall take into account both the economic and the moralfactors in human advance. We in America can attain our greatdestiny only by service; not by rhetoric, and that dreadful mentaldouble-dealing and verbal juggling which makes promises and repudiates them, and says one thing at one time, and the directly opposite thing at another time. Our service must be the service of deeds. – Theodore Roosevelt
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Meditations on the The Matrix
There's a thrill that accompanies the observation of super-human powers. The instinct to worship is fanned into flame by fairy tales of flying men with lightning-fast reflexes.
"If only it were true--if only we had a Neo to follow who could rescue us from bondage into . . . " into what?
We rejoice to see "good" defeat evil with a combination of flare and fury that resembles our abilities enough to fuel day-dreams of achieving such greatness ourselves. But we are sick and twisted fools. Jesus Christ spoke and stilled the storm, commanded and cast out demons. Jesus Christ willed and walked on water.
He didn't need to know kung fu, or how to fly, or how to load a gun (though if He'd wanted to He could've learned without a computer program).
The real hero understood greatness and glory. He didn't come to destroy life to save. He came to sacrifice His own life to save. The Son of God cannot be contained by the tiny longings of men or be compared to the god-men they've invented. Jesus Christ is the infinite source of awe-inspiring power, the ultimate object worthy of complete and child-like and radical devotion.
But men pretend to be bored by Him, and make another movie filled with the glorification of sinful autonomy, faithless sex and dressed-up moral rebellion. They pretend to be bored by the sandaled Jew who talked a lot. They deliberately and desperately try and try to forget that the real God-man didn't stay dead either. And his resurrection was not the illogical result of a weak and human crush-kiss, but the outworking of the eternal plan of the infinite Father who loves his son with the infinite love that the natural man can only weep and wish to taste.
They fear this peaceful man, because there IS a fight between good and evil. And they know, deep down they know, that unlike their self-portraits that they've pasted into fairy-tales, they are the evil ones. And everyone knows the bad guys lose. Christ will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. There will be no contest. He needs no guns--he speaks and it comes to pass.
There is no fear in love though. and there IS a real world--an escape from the darkness into the glorious freedom of the children of God, not into the gloomy dungeons of man-made misery.
Long before someone dreamed-up Neo, the God who is love sent us a savior. Those who have met him know what is real. Those who have not have a choice. But there are no secrets--only the mystery of a God revealed. You can take the red pill, or the blue pill, but there is no uncertainty. This is sure: then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Jesus says "I am the Truth". Forget the red pill. Christ's crimson blood flows for you.
"If only it were true--if only we had a Neo to follow who could rescue us from bondage into . . . " into what?
We rejoice to see "good" defeat evil with a combination of flare and fury that resembles our abilities enough to fuel day-dreams of achieving such greatness ourselves. But we are sick and twisted fools. Jesus Christ spoke and stilled the storm, commanded and cast out demons. Jesus Christ willed and walked on water.
He didn't need to know kung fu, or how to fly, or how to load a gun (though if He'd wanted to He could've learned without a computer program).
The real hero understood greatness and glory. He didn't come to destroy life to save. He came to sacrifice His own life to save. The Son of God cannot be contained by the tiny longings of men or be compared to the god-men they've invented. Jesus Christ is the infinite source of awe-inspiring power, the ultimate object worthy of complete and child-like and radical devotion.
But men pretend to be bored by Him, and make another movie filled with the glorification of sinful autonomy, faithless sex and dressed-up moral rebellion. They pretend to be bored by the sandaled Jew who talked a lot. They deliberately and desperately try and try to forget that the real God-man didn't stay dead either. And his resurrection was not the illogical result of a weak and human crush-kiss, but the outworking of the eternal plan of the infinite Father who loves his son with the infinite love that the natural man can only weep and wish to taste.
They fear this peaceful man, because there IS a fight between good and evil. And they know, deep down they know, that unlike their self-portraits that they've pasted into fairy-tales, they are the evil ones. And everyone knows the bad guys lose. Christ will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. There will be no contest. He needs no guns--he speaks and it comes to pass.
There is no fear in love though. and there IS a real world--an escape from the darkness into the glorious freedom of the children of God, not into the gloomy dungeons of man-made misery.
Long before someone dreamed-up Neo, the God who is love sent us a savior. Those who have met him know what is real. Those who have not have a choice. But there are no secrets--only the mystery of a God revealed. You can take the red pill, or the blue pill, but there is no uncertainty. This is sure: then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Jesus says "I am the Truth". Forget the red pill. Christ's crimson blood flows for you.
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